


For the Last Time Bergara it was Not Aliens

by Midnight675



Category: Buzzfeed - Fandom, Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series), unsolved - Fandom
Genre: Detective AU, Detective Shane Madej, Gen, Reporter AU, reporter ryan bergara
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-15
Updated: 2019-01-18
Packaged: 2019-10-10 18:15:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17431013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Midnight675/pseuds/Midnight675
Summary: People keep showing up dead in Beacon and Detective Shane Madej is looking for any way to put a stop to it. Unfortunately for him, the only person who seems to have any theory about what is going on is the delusional tabloid reporter who keeps showing up at his crime scenes to tell him that this was an alien abduction. With nowhere else to turn Shane is forced to consider the idea, even if he knows it is definitely not true.orShane is a detective and Ryan is the tabloid writer that keeps trying to convince him aliens exist.





	1. A Cold Murder and a Cold Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> So this is probably the first official fan fiction that I have written and published on this site (not counting the one I wrote for school) and honestly, I am just proud of myself for finishing it. It kind of took on a mind of its own somewhere in the middle, and you will see what I mean by that but I am fairly proud of it anyway. I hope you enjoy and if you do, leave a comment or something. Lastly, if this is J, my rule for this is you can read it if you really want to but do not talk to me about it in person, please.
> 
> So just an announcement if anyone out there is re-reading this, I have actually gone back and re-written some parts to make them sound a bit better. The main story is the same but the way it was written is a little different and I added a few parts. I hope you still like it!

No witnesses,  
No murder weapon,  
No suspects,  
This was shaping up to be a fairly pitiful start to a case. 

It was a cold winter morning and Shane had been called out of his house far too early to bear witness to yet another waste of human life left bleeding out on the front steps of a suburban home on Carter Street. The body had still been warm when it was found but that was hours ago now. Shane leaned down to inspect the body but having no strong expertise in the medical side of crime solving couldn't gather much. There were three odd stab wounds in the subjects back and the same red blisters gracing his neck as had been found on all of the other victims. It was strange but not particularly astonishing, serial killers had existing before and unfortunately, they would probably continue to show up in the future. Shane figured he would have to wait for the medical examiner to find out any more. This was the third body to turn up dead in this neighborhood. All three on their own doorstep, all three found in the early morning and all three with the red rash encompassing most of their necks. Shane was just thinking what a shame it was when a voice across the yard made him leave the case behind altogether.

"Detective Madej!" Shane groaned, that voice had more confidence in it than it deserved. He stood again and turned to face the voice.

"Mr. Bergara," he smiled despite himself, maybe this time would be different. "what can I do for you today" 

Ryan Bergara was a journalist, or at least he liked to fancy himself one. He wrote for tabloids, though his specific publication didn't specialize in puff pieces or Celebrity nonsense, no, they specialized in the supernatural, ghosts, demons, aliens, ghouls, you name it and Ryan Bergara has found a way to write an article about it. 

"Can you comment on the third alien abduction? Have you identified what caused the burn marks on their necks? Should the world be concerned?" Ryan held an old tape recorder up to Shane's face. Shane pushed it away and sighed, same shit as always. 

"For the last time Bergara it was not aliens" 

"You can't prove that!" He shot back as if he was expecting this answer, which he most likely was, this wasn't exactly their first rodeo. "What about the markings on the neck? You have to admit that the blisters are strange!"

"Mr. Bergara I assure you there is a perfectly logical explanation for-"

"What about the second victim who had the hole in the back of his neck? What's your explanation for that?"

"Humans are completely capab-"

"Not to mention that there has been a history of abductions in this part of Beacon." He just would not stop.

"Geez!" Shane yelled a little louder than he had intended, Ryan stopped "Ryan just because the victims have blisters doesn't mean they were operated on by aliens, plenty of things on Earth could have caused those. And as for the hole in that guy's head, man, humans are messed up, probably just some weird guys idea of a funny joke.” He pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. ”You have got to stop showing up here" It probably wasn't good for Shane to have slipped into such an informal tongue but he and Ryan had been going through this so long it didn't really seem to matter to either of them.

"Shane there is a history here, look" he shoved his tape recorder into one of the pockets on his heavy winter jacket and instead pulled out a slightly crumpled stack of papers. "40 cases of people claiming to be abducted since the 1950s, do you understand how high that is?" He shoved the papers in Shane's hands who briefly glanced at them before handing them back.

"No, because I don't keep tabs on fairy tales. Now, I have work to do" Shane started to walk away but Ryan caught him by the arm.

"Wait! you know this has happened before right" this caught Shane's attention because he did not, in fact, know that. He moved back to the police tape.

"You better not be feeding me lies Bergara" Ryan perked up.

"No! look," he pulled out a very old, very tattered newspaper clipping with a large picture of a dead body on the front. The picture was black and white but it was fairly clear that it had the same red rash on its skin as the just cold one lying behind Shane. The date said the paper was from 1984.

"Ryan, where did you find this?" 

“It was a part of a box of newspapers I bought at a yard sale. When I looked it up I couldn't find it anywhere else, it wasn't in any archives anywhere." Ryan beamed proudly at his discovery as Shane regained his composer from the slight shock.

"Can I borrow this? If these murders really have happened before we may be dealing with a worse killer than we first thought and I need to know why I had no access to this information." Ryan nodded reluctantly.

"Yeah but I really think you are missing the point-"

Shane cut him off. "Ryan I admit that this is odd but that still doesn't mean aliens. Now, I have to get back to work, for real this time.” He almost left it there but... Ryan had found him a lead, it was the least he could do to throw him a bone.“Look, if you want to talk to the medical examiner he may be able to better explain to you how mundanely human this crime is, but other than that I can't do anything else for you. I’ll see you at the next crime." 

With that Shane quickly moved back to the body before Ryan could stop him again. The medical examiner had arrived at some point while he was preoccupied and was inspecting the body. Shane took one last look at the newspaper clipping he had gotten then folded it up and shoved it in his pocket. Well, crazy alien conspiracy or not, it was a lead which was more than he had before.


	2. A Short Interview with the King of Fanatics

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I'll be honest I actually have all of this written already so I will probably be posting a chapter a day for the next few days just so I can feel like I didn't drop a whole bunch of stuff all at once. If you like this just know that there is more coming and it will be coming very very soon.

Shane was wracking his brain as he poured over a set of newspapers he had dug up on the internet. They all told of the same 10 murders, two with the weird stab wounds, 5 with the odd neck hole, and all with the same red rash. These had all been essentially lost to time, they were not on any of the polices databases or any databases for that matter. Shane was only able to find the ones he had on a sketchy website about Aliens. He couldn't even find anyone on the force who remembered it, even though it was barely 35 years ago. Someone should have heard of something. 

Refusing to drink the Kool-aid, Shane assumed that the papers must have been faked but there was something to them, they were eerily similar to Shane's current situation. So, either they were just one big coincidence or someone out there knew more than they were letting on. Shane decided his best lead was to find the owner of the website he had found the papers on. 

~

Shane pulled his car up to the curb of a towering apartment building in the center of town and turned off the car but didn't get out, not yet. He couldn't believe he was going to have to do this. If he found out, Ryan would never let him live this down. 

After looking into the website a little, Shane had found that it was owned by someone called "holywatergunbatman", or at least that was the screen name, and traced their IP address back to the very apartment building that he was sitting in front of. He hated that he was going to have to talk to the king of the fanatics but it was his only real choice. People have died and Shane needed to find a way to make sure it didn't happen again. 

After sitting outside of the building for at least 5 minutes contemplating whether he was really going to do this, he decided that it was do or die time and forced himself out of the car and into the apartment building. The man in question lived on the third floor and went by the name Charles Martin. Shane got the doorman to show him the apartment and knocked.

“Hello, I’m looking for a Mr. Charles Martin”

The man that came to the door was older, probably in his forties and it really showed. He looked like the kind of person that you would find huddled in a bunker with a tin foil hat on raving about bigfoots toenail. Needless to say, Shane was pretty sure he was in the right place. 

“That's me officer,” surprise, surprise “have I done something wrong?” He seemed sincerely confused which was a point in his favor but Shane still couldn't write off that this man was tied to the murders so he proceeded with caution. 

“No sir, I don't think so, I just need to ask you a few questions about these” Shane pulled out copies of the newspapers he had found on the man's website. Immediately the man's face lit up and he ushered Shane into his apartment mumbling about how it was about time someone from the force took notice and how he knew that his time would come. 

The apartment was not very well taken care of, it was actually kind of sad. The windows out to the street were leaking so there was water damage everywhere and Charles didn't seem to be doing a great job cleaning as the floor was covered in empty noodle cups and wadded up paper. On one wall there was a large stereotypical bulletin board with red yarn on it connecting dots. The carpet was stained, the furniture was broken and it was all around a sorry place to live. Shane felt for the guy a bit but he also couldn't help thinking of Ryan. What if Ryan lived in a place like this? He didn't really know him that well, it was possible. Shane understood that Ryan wasn't actually crazy, at least not enough for there to be a problem but he did have the same delusions about the supernatural that Charles did and working at the tabloid couldn't have been bringing in that much money, they weren't very popular. He made a mental note to give Ryan a once over the next time he saw him. They may not have been friends but he had known him for so long at this point that there was some kind of a weird relationship there that made Shane feel a slight responsibility for the little reporter. 

“So, Mr….officer... what do you want to know?”

“Please, call me Detective Madej and I would like to know where you found them.” 

The man eagerly explained that he hadn't found them anywhere, he had kept them from way back when they were released. He pulled the stack out for Shane to look through and sure enough, they seemed like they would have been old enough to be real but that didn't explain why no one he knew had ever heard of them.

“You do understand Mr. Martin that it is very hard for me to believe that these are real considering no one at the station or anywhere on the internet other than your website can remember it happening.” The old man tilted his head to the side slightly and shrugged.

“Well if things keep going the way they did last time soon you boys won't remember this one either” Shane held in a sigh because he could feel the crazy coming on. He turned away from the box of magazines and back to face Charles. 

“Pardon?”

“Last time this happened, after they killed those 10 people, they sent in spies to wipe every trace of it off the earth and set out some gas that made everybody out there forget it all. It didn't get too far outside of this town, you know how small-town crime is, so it wasn't hard for them to erase it completely. I only escaped with my head because I was locked down in my bunker. I come out of it and no one has any memory of any of it and I'm the only one left with the proof.” He gestured to his box of newspapers. “Listen, you can believe me or not but I know what I know and those aliens are to blame for your murders Detective Madej.” 

Shane got some better pictures of all of the newspapers themselves and thanked Charles for his cooperation. As he left all he could think about was how frustratingly illogical Charles sounded. It wasn't aliens, it couldn't have been aliens but at this point, he was once again without a lead and wasn't ready to give up. Unfortunately, Shane could tell that Charles was clearly not out there killing people just from the way he talked, plus he had an alibi for the times of the murders so there was nowhere else to turn. That was unless….. Man, Shane really hated where this case was taking him. 

*

“Hello, yes is this the home of Ryan Steven Bergara? I need your help with something”


	3. Help from an Unreliable Source

Shane was happy to see that Ryan's apartment wasn't too shabby. It didn't leak. It didn't have trash everywhere. It wasn’t anything particularly magnificent but it was fairly nice, Shane only wished that he was seeing it under different circumstances. 

“Ryan I want to be very clear, I still don't believe that this is aliens...but I’m out of ideas so, you say that there is a history of abductions, I want to know what people say about them. Can you show me where these people were ‘beamed up’ or whatever.” Ryan was smiling smugly despite Shane's mockery. He knew that he had Shane and he was going to hold this over him for a very long time. The look in his eyes wasn't fully smug though, there was still a very real excitement in them too.

“Sure thing detective, we can check the place out tonight” 

“Tonight?” it was 5 in the afternoon, “Why do we have to wait till tonight?”

“All the abductions were said to take place at night when the people were alone in the field down near Bailey road. I did the research, 6 of the 10 victims regularly went by or were last seen on or around that field between the hours of 8 and 10 so, if you really want to understand what happened we’ll want to go later” Ryan was getting smugger by the minute.

Shane groaned “Alright Bergara but only if you admit that the real reason that you want to go at night is that you want to hunt Martians.” 

Ryan shrugged “Alright, I definitely want to go Alien hunting but to be fair I still think your murderer is an alien so I’m technically still helping” Shane laughed. 

“Whatever you say, buddy, so till then, what else do you know?”

*

Ryan and Shane had spent the rest of their evening waiting for the clock to strike 8, finally, actually, learning about each other. For someone that Shane had known for at least five years now, he really didn't know anything at all about Ryan. As it turned out he wasn't quite as bad as Shane thought. He was pretty cool when Shane ignored the 50 episodes of Bigfoot is Real and I’ve Seen Him on his DVR and what Shane was pretty sure was ghost catching equipment hidden on one of the bookshelves in his living room. They, surprisingly, had a lot in common.

“I still can't believe that you don't believe in aliens at the very least. How hard is it to believe that there is other life in the universe?”Eight had finally come and Shane was driving himself and Ryan to the site of the alleged abductions. Shane tilted his head a little.

“I never said I didn't believe in aliens” he answered casually. Ryan's eyes went wide like a cartoon character. 

“What...but all... “ Shane laughed a little to himself. If he had known telling Ryan this would be so entertaining he would have brought it up hours ago.

“Listen, do I believe that they have come to Earth to steal people and harvest our brains or whatever? No, but you’re right, it is statistically very unlikely that humans are alone in this universe. I would have to be really narrow-minded to think that they don't exist somewhere out there.” Ryan sat there in shock just long enough for Shane to pull up to the field by Bailey road. 

“Well….detective, where do we start?” Shane turned off the car and stared out at the empty field. That was a great question. 

“We look around until we find something.” He said it with confidence but he didn't really feel a lot of confidence in that plan.For something Shane was paid to know how to do he really sounded clueless.

They set up the headlights to light up the field so they could search and set out. Shane suggested that they stay relatively close together in case there was anything hiding out in the darkness and they started searching for anything they could find between stocks of corn. As Shane wandered he wasn't really sure what it was that he was looking for, he figured he would know it when he saw it. 

“Hey, Shane” Ryan was half yelling from somewhere just to Shane's right.

“Yeah” Shane answered, already getting ready to run to Ryan in case he had found something.

“Do you think there are any bears out here?”

“What?”Shane got out with a laugh. 

“Bears, do you think there are any out here?” 

“Ryan we live in Beacon, when have you ever-”

The conversation was cut short by an ear-piercing noise penetrating the world around them so forcefully that the corn began to bend under its might. Shane bent over with the corn and held his ears. When he looked back on this event later, he couldn't remember anything but the sharp screeching noise and the blinding white light. For a moment all that he saw was white then the sound subsided and he was able to see again, able to see himself being levitated off the ground and up into a ship. Almost like a flash, in the next second, he found himself sitting in a white room with no windows or doors across from Ryan who was banging on one of the walls. Crap.


	4. ...Aliens

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am going to go ahead and post this chapter as well just because chapter 3 and 4 were originally one chapter and I feel like they are both too short alone. I also apologize for a bit of the formating because I have yet to figure out how to use italics on AO3 so there is some stuff in here that should be in italics that is not.

“Ryan” Ryan jumped at the sound of Shanes' voice. He scrambled away from the wall he had been banging on and over to Shane. 

“Shane we-”

“I know man, just...just breath okay?” Ryan was flipping out and honestly, Shane was a little bit too, but he tried to keep it together. “We are...in a spaceship…. Okay...so step one...” He paused as all of the many many possible options flew through his head and quickly settled on the the most simple one “We need to get out of the spaceship.” he finished matter of factly. 

Shane took a moment to look around the room he and Ryan were currently trapped in for anything that could mean a way out. There didn't seem to by any defining features on anything in the little room. There was only just enough space for him and Ryan to move. The walls were unnervingly pristine, without a single scratch and the white that covered them was almost blinding. As he searched Ryan took a seat in the center of the room and began staring at one of the white walls, still in shock but not raveing anymore. 

“I already checked all the walls, there is nothing on them. Man! I should have known that it was a stupid idea to go out into that field!” He rubbed his eyes and then started mumbling something that Shane couldn't quite make out until he shot up and screamed it at the top of his lungs. “Stupid aliens, let us out” 

He was starting to channel his fear into anger, this was better for the situation at least but Shane could tell he was still shaking. With all his strength behind him, Ryan kicked the wall nearest to him. The white in the wall suddenly started to flicker like an old Tv as a shock wave of static interrupted the immaculate white in waves that bounced around the little room, then quickly dissipated. Shane was fairly certain that the experience would have been bad enough to give someone a seizure. Slowly Ryan retreated from where he had kicked, his eyes tracing the path the waves had traveled. 

“Do that again” Shane said without taking his eyes off the walls.

Ryan must have had a similar hunch to Shane because he didn't question this command, he moved swiftly to kick the wall again. This time the wall flickered and went black. Meanwhile, the ripple spread across the other walls again. Shane took a calculated look around the room and back to the black wall. He stared it down for just a second before pulling out his gun. 

“Ryan, get down please.”When Ryan saw what he was doing he dropped like a dead man and as soon as he was down Shane let out a bullet. It hit the wall and the whole thing shattered like glass, revealing the inside of the ship. It was just as white as the room but the architecture was slightly more complicated. It was still simplistic but had more bells and whistles, comparatively, to the room that Shane and Ryan had been tapped in. 

Shane cautiously moved to the now gaping hole in their little white cage to scope out the hallway, gun still in hand, but there didn't seem to be any alarms or guards or anything. It was as if the aliens didn't think that they would be able to get out, or even worse, they wanted them to get out. Shane motioned for Ryan to follow him. Ryan hesitated.

“Man, do you want to get off the spaceship of not” Shane growled quietly in case there was anyone listening in. 

“Hold on,” he motioned with his hand for Shane to wait. “I have got to prepare myself for this.” It seemed fair, but Shane was still a bit annoyed because this really wasn't the time to be waiting for anything. Lucky for him Ryan was ready to move after just a second of tracing the floor with his eyes and mumbling encouragement. 

The two slowly moved into the space outside their room. The hallway seemed to go on forever in both directions so Shane picked one way and hoped that he chose the right one.

“If you see anything that looks like an exit don't be quiet about it” Shane whispered to Ryan as they made their way down the hallway. If Shane wasn't sure that he was crazy he would have thought that all of this made a lot of sense, the murders, the old newspapers, the ship that had literally picked him up in the same spot all the victims went missing. He hated how much it made sense, for the first time ever Occam's razor was leaning towards aliens. 

As the end of the infinite hallway came into view Shane could just make out the shape of a door. It was either an exit or the door to the cockpit, at least that's what he figured, who really knows anything in situations like this. For all, he knew there could be a giant tentacle monster behind that door, or a puppy, or literally anything. The only way to find out was to open it. He nudged Ryan and pointed toward the door. 

“I'll go in first. We don't know what's going to be in there, so be ready for anything.” 

“And what do we do if something is in there waiting for us?” Ryan asked

“Well,” For just a second Shane was forced to face his own mortality but quickly shut that train of thought down and followed with, “if that happens we will be dead long before we can do anything about it right?”

“That's not comforting man”

“I thought it was comforting, at least we won't suffer” Ryan let out a frustrated sound. 

“You know what, at this point, I hope they kill me” There was that anger again.

Shane sent Ryan one more warring glance before he threw the door open. It slammed into the wall on the inside of the room and Ryan and Shane ran in guns blazing. All the aliens did was jump. The room was indeed a cockpit and sitting inside were at least 6 little grey men doing various things to fly the ship. After the initial shock, they didn't seem particularly phased by their entrance. 

“So, you got out?” the voice came from the one at the helm of the ship. “I didn't know that you could do that” He stepped down from his chair and moved closer very nonchalantly, which Shane didn't like at all.

“We’ll do a lot more than that if you don't let us go!” Ryan yelled unexpectedly from behind Shane who shot him a confused glare. Ryan shrugged “I saw it in a movie once, I’m a nervous dude!” he mumbled.

“You're not the one holding the gun! Who do you think they're going to kill if they feel threatened?” Shane hissed back, luckily for him, the Aliens didn't feel threatened, not in the slightest. The main alien cleared his throat. 

“Are you two done?” Ryan and Shane stopped bickering but Shane didn't lower his weapon. 

“What did you do to those people that keep showing up dead?” Ryan shouted from behind Shane again. Shane didn't glare this time, only gripped his gun tighter. At this point, he really wanted to know the answer too. The alien sighed and started rubbing the back of its neck.

“Look, guys….so we didn't know that you were…...intelligent? That sounds bad, but..um.. we were kind of...using humans as test subjects for a few medicines and stuff.. I mean clearly, you two are intelligent life but….Our bad man.” The alien rolled his eyes and continued to not be threatened by Shane's gun. Shane could not believe this guy.

“Our bad? People died and your response is ‘our bad’! Also, I don't care how primitive you think a species is don't test deadly medicine on it! That's just basic decency!” Shane yelled back at the alien. 

“I already got this lecture from the protesters at our headquarters alright, I don't need it from you too! You saw the cage we kept you in! Anyone could have gotten out of that thing! What were we supposed to think when none of you escaped? “ He sighed “Look we will bring you home or whatever if that helps and trust me, we will not be back”  
Shane started to lower his gun. “Wait really? That's it?” 

“Yeah, I mean I told you that there are already protesters at our building the last thing we need is more publicity. It's better for us to get out of here before the ethics police show up and shut us down themselves.” The alien waited but Shane and Ryan just stood there trying to decide whether or not this was some kind of trick. Somewhere in the back of the cockpit, Shane was pretty sure he could hear some other alien making a snide comment along the lines of really, this is what passes for intelligence but he was too caught up in the moment to let it register fully. After he realized that they weren't going to respond to his proposal the head alien added: “So is there anywhere specific you want to be dropped of or..”

Shane looked to Ryan in disbelief who only gaped back at him. It couldn't be that easy. Finally completely lowering his gun Shane responded to the head alien. 

“Drop us in Beacon?”

*

Apparently, it was that easy.

“We just met aliens”

“We did”

Shane and Ryan were sitting back in Shanes cop car, both processing. They sat in silence as Shane reevaluated everything that he thought he knew about the murders. Aliens had been to Earth and...used humans as cosmetic test subjects….more than once. His murderer wasn't some crazy guy...it was aliens. He….It was just…..aliens. Meanwhile, to his right, Ryan rethought everything he thought he knew about aliens. They didn't speak different languages, they didn't have a vendetta against earthlings, they didn't really try to destroy all life as he knew it, they were just...kinda human. Which was really what made them so terrible.

The relative silence held for a long while. Nothing could be heard in the car but the slight rustle of the corn stalks in the field and the crickets that inhabited the night chirping away as if nothing had changed. There was silence, that was, until something occurred to Ryan. He suddenly perked up and slapped Shane on the arm. Shane reflexively grabbed Ryan's hand in defense. 

“What the heck ma-”

“I was right!!” Ryan cheered eagerly. “All those years you said I was crazy, but I was right!” Shane relaxed but still grappling with the night's events was quick to contradict him.  
“First of all I have never called you crazy, not to your face, and second of all, just because one murder turned out to be aliens doesn't mean they all were.” Ryan gave him that smug smile again. In his heart and, for once, his brain Shane knew he had to give Ryan this one but ohhh did he ever wish he didn't. He groaned and reluctantly finished with “but in this one instance, yes Ryan, you were right”

“Damn right,” Ryan settled back in again but his outburst had successfully broken the ice again so he added, “they weren't exactly what I was expecting though” He was pensive as his gaze shifted to land on the floorboards of the car.

“Yeah I guess things never really are,” Shane replied cryptically. “Man, I am going to have such a hard time explaining this to my boss. I don't suppose you could keep me out of the article you write about this one?”Shane maneuvered a pleading glance Ryans way only to find that he was shaking his head.

“I don't think I'm gonna write an article about this one...people already don't really believe what I write, if I suddenly insert myself into the story they are going to think I’ve gone insane or I made the whole thing up or something. I think this one is just for me.” Shane smiled.

“Thanks, Bergara, you're alright you know”

“Don't mention it, detective, please just drive me home so I can contemplate the last hour.” Shane started the car.

“Gladly”


	5. Epilogue

Two witnesses to the stabbing,  
A bloody knife found stashed in a trashcan near the crime scene,  
One very likely suspect,  
And one very much a still alive victim to ID him when they caught up with him. 

Shane breathed in the sweet sweet air of things finally making sense and all was right with the world. He examined the knife closely. It hadn't been cleaned, if they were lucky, and Shane was feeling lucky, they could find some kind of prints on it. Hopefully, they would have a name for this guy by the end of the day. He was just handing the knife off to one of his people when he heard that voice again. That ridiculous, overconfident, nutty, voice, calling for him for over the police tape. Normally this was the part where he winced and braced himself but not this time.

“Shane!” Ryan was waving with one hand and had a pad of paper in the other. Shane felt a small smile creep across his lips as he walked up to join him at the edge of the crime scene. 

“Ryan, what brings you here today?” There didn't seem like there was any need for formality this time considering the events of the last week, in fact as he spoke Shane didn't even have to force himself to be polite this time, it just came out. He found himself genuinely happy to see Ryan Bergara at his crime scene, something he couldn't have fathomed the week before. It was like a whole new person had taken over Shane.

“I’ll be honest, I don't even believe in this one” Ryan laughed. 

Shane rolled his eyes, “Well, let's hear it,” The words came out full of exhaustion, maybe there was a little bit of the old Shane still in there, ”what stabbed this perfectly good human?” 

He gestured for Ryan to continue. 

“Vampires,” Ryan answered apologetically. Shane squinted at him with amused frustration and he shrugged, “ listen sometimes you just have to get paid”

“Fair enough” 

“Do I have a case?” 

“Not in the slightest, ”

They shared a laugh as someone started to call for Shane from behind. It seemed that not only had this man left a knife at the scene but he had dropped his wallet. Stupid criminals were the best. 

“They’re calling for me” Shane apologized as he started to move “we’re almost done here anyway, wanna go get coffee or something? It's getting ridiculously cold out here.”  
“Alright, but” Ryan whispered the next part just loud enough that only Shane could hear, “Have you told anyone what happened last week?” Shane shook his head and stopped moving away, the rest of his team could wait for a minute. 

“No, people would never believe me and I don't need people thinking I’m one of those cops that went mad over an unsolved murder or something. I just told my boss the case was getting too intense and they put someone else on it. Speaking of which, did you take care of those newspapers I told you about? I don't want McNab falling down the same rabbit hole I did.” Ryan pulled a little key out of his pocket and handed it to Shane. 

“Burned them this morning, but I did feel kind of bad, it's not Charles fault that he was right. Also, how did you get a key to his apartment, that feels super sketchy.” Shane shoved the key into his pocket quickly. 

“I have my resources.”Ryan looked unamused and was clearly judging Shane for being so cryptic but didn't say anything else. “I’ll see you for that coffee okay?”  
Ryan nodded again and as Shane was walking back to his crime scene he called back one more time, it felt important at the time, like something needed to be said. “You know Ryan, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship”


End file.
